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Category Archives: Australia

After the successful activation of Mount Gibraltar earlier in the day it was down the Hume Highway before turning off down towards Canberra. Such a pleasure driving on roads that weren’t bumper to bumper! Only things I didn’t see, were kangaroos.. well, except the ones at the side of the road that had obviously come worse off when meeting cars and trucks
Time was getting on,so after I’d found the hotel and checked in, I drove backup Mount Ainslie, to the fairly large car park, with only one of two cars parked. Menacing clouds were starting to gather, and the distant rumble of thunder meant that I probably wouldn’t be on top of the hill too long!

40m into the linked dipole quickly rattled off 4 QSOs that meant, at least, that I’d qualified the summit, and had it as a ‘complete’ too, which was nice!
Switching to 20m provided another 2 QSOs on the linked dipole.

hf setup, ends of dipole in the trees

A further one qso back on 40m before I wimped out and pulled down the dipole, putting the 2m moxon on the pole for 3 further 2m fm QSOs

Tiny moxon antenna on the pole

After numerous ground strikes from lightning, getting visibly closer, I hastily decided enough was enough and packed up, apologies if I missed anyone.

Only a couple of days left before I leave the southern hemisphere so it was time for a couple of easy vk activations!
Both virtually drive on summits, so that was nice first one, just off the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne, vk2/il-001, Mount Gibraltar, I drove past the gate to the many transmitting towers, so I did have to walk up to the activation zone. I was stopped by a couple of tourists who wanted to know where the viewpoint was.. they said they thought I would know as i looked like a “professional walker” ( Huh?. They’d obviously been out in the sun too long! Damned tourists…. oh.. yes… err… 😉 )
Anyway, there appeared to be a lot of work happening on one of the towers, installing another dish, so i kept out of the way, finding an old tree to bungy the pole to, one end of the linked dipole in a tree, the other wrapped around a rock on the ground.

pole bungied to the tree, rig on the ground being investigated by ants :(

The RF noise from the transmitters made things a little difficult in hearing chasers, my reports to most being significantly worse than the reports i received in return, however, all QSOs were successful in the end, 10 on 40m, and a further 6 on 20m.

It was quite ple:)asant, in the shade of the trees, the thermometer showing 32c, a nice change from 32f

Time

Call

Band

Mode

Notes

00:29z

VK2YW

7MHz

SSB

s33 r55

00:32z

VK2IO

7MHz

SSB

s33 r55

00:34z

VK2YK

7MHz

SSB

s58 r58

00:36z

VK2UH

7MHz

SSB

s48 r58

00:38z

VK3PF

7MHz

SSB

s44 r42

00:39z

VK1AD

7MHz

SSB

s22 r57

00:51z

VK5CZ

14MHz

SSB

s53 r53

00:57z

VK5PAS

14MHz

SSB

s44 r57

00:59z

VK5WG

14MHz

SSB

s33 r55

01:01z

VK4RF

14MHz

SSB

s58 r55

01:01z

VK4HA

14MHz

SSB

s58 r55

01:05z

VK5IS

14MHz

SSB

s21 r52

01:13z

VK3LED

7MHz

SSB

s47 r59

01:19z

VK1AT/P2

7MHz

SSB

s22 r53

01:21z

VK4RF

7MHz

SSB

s21 r55

01:22z

VK2NP

7MHz

SSB

s45 r54

Quite an enjoyable time in the shadows of the trees,many thanks to all the chasers.
Rig was the 817nd, with the MP-817 Amplifier,into a linked dipole, not too far off the ground.
After close to an hour playing radio, it was time to pack up, and make my way down the Hume Highway again to Canberra